Fig. 4.

Intranasal application of anti-Nogo-A antibody enhanced functional recovery. (A) Experimental timeline (d: days), adult rats received large unilateral cortical strokes followed by 14 d of intranasal application of either anti-Nogo-A antibody or control antibody. Weekly behavioral assessment was carried out starting from day 2 to day 42 poststroke. At the end of the behavioral assessment anterograde tracing of the CST fibers was carried out for neuroanatomical analysis in the cervical spinal cord. (B) Representative coronal section of a brain depicting cellular damage throughout the layers of the sensorimotor cortex 63 d poststroke. (Scale bar, 1.5 mm.) (C) Quantification of cortical stroke depth. Dotted line represents the position of ipsilesional corticospinal motor neurons (cortical layer V). (D) Success rate in the SPG task at baseline (BL; intact, trained) and after a unilateral photothrombotic stroke to the sensorimotor cortex of the preferred paw from day 2 to Day 42 postlesion of anti-Nogo-A antibody (green, n = 9) or control antibody (blue, n = 6)-treated animals. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical evaluation was carried out with two-way ANOVA repeated measure followed by Bonferroni post hoc, asterisks indicate significances: **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. (E) No correlation was found between the lesion depth and the success rate on the SPG task at day 42 poststroke (P > 0.05, r = 0.13, Spearman correlation).